I’m a recovering Xbox gamer who grew tired of the monthly cost for the ability to play my purchased games online.
Purchased a pre-built gaming PC (couldn’t build it myself for less) and it’s been working well. Had to re-buy my primary game Forza Horizon 5 on Steam and I plan to pre-order FH6 on Steam and spend a lot of time on it. PC is in my room, Xbox is in the living room.
I’m considering buying a cheap used Steam Deck for occasional travel, playing the occasional Halo MCC at my friend’s house, and using it on a dock in the living room to phase out the Xbox.
I can buy a 512GB LCD version for around $200-250 or a used OLED for under $350.
I’m comfortable buying used electronics and understand the deck isn’t the most powerful thing around, but I just don’t want to regret it if FH6 plays horribly. I guess I can wait until it launches and read reviews, but then I miss out on months of time with the deck and still have to use my Xbox in the living room.
The Steam Deck (and by extension any handheld) isn’t particularly great for 3D games due to the power limitations. Those games do generally run, but they either need lower resolution or lower framerates, and almost always drain the battery faster.
I’ve been okay with games that released targeting the PS4 generation, which is still a very wide net including many games released in the last few years. I finished AC: Odyssey on my Deck for instance.
Steam Deck can run Forza 5 okay enough, just don’t expect it to look amazing, especially while docked. It won’t be at the Xbox in terms of visuals and performance.
Based on how Motorsport ran on PC, I wouldn’t count on it being a smooth experience for FH6 until we are proven otherwise.
Also you can stream you main PC to a steam deck, although you’re going to want a wired connection if possible, especially if doing so while docked.
Appreciate the input, hadn’t heard about the PC to deck streaming yet.
Look into Moonlight. Free and open source and works better than the built-in steam solution.
Currently playing horizon 5 on it, only just makes it into the playable category in my opinion. I would expect 6 to not really be playable on it, but will have to wait and see.
I do believe the Ally plays Horizon 5 much better than the Deck. Still wouldn’t trade the Deck for one though 😁
Thanks for the feedback.
FH6 is supposed to based on the same engine as the new Motorsport game. FH6s minimum system requirements are even more than Motorsport. And Motorsport runs like butts even on a higher end PC. 5 might be playable, but 6 almost definitely won’t be.
Dang I really liked the idea of the deck, but that’s another fair point about FH6 probably not running well.
Forza 5 ran ok on my steam deck when I had it. I wasn’t getting super high fps or anything, but it was stable, good enough to make the road my bitch whenever I had a spare minute.
Ive played forza 4 on it and its playable but if its docked and in 1080p it won’t be a good experience. Idk if my standards are to high from years of PC gaming. You won’t get 60fps and thats one of the games you really want nice reflections and high frames.
If you want to play forza take a look at the legion go S if you can find one for cheap
Thank, that makes sense about about the lower frames on 1080p while docked. I’ll check out the Legion Go S.
What about the Asus ROG Ally X? I know it’s Win 11 by default, but I read Bazzite can be installed. I’ve seen these come up in the used market as well.
Personally, I think Asus is good on paper but the products are usually poorly assembled and don’t last. I recommend the SD or Legion.
